In celebration of the launch of The No-More-Excuses Guide to Yoga, I’ve invited some friends and colleagues to write articles relating to the theme of the book’s subtitle: Because yoga is for every body.

I’m delighted to introduce Roseanne Harvey for the first time on The Yoga Lunchbox. Roseanne is the woman behind It’s All Yoga Baby and an out-spoken voice for diverse images of yoga bodies. She’s helping to challenging the idea that there is a stereotypical yoga body and helping to encourage the use of diverse images of men and woman practicing yoga.

“You’ve gained weight. With all the yoga that you do, you should be skinny!”

There’s nothing like being fat-shamed by your grandmother. But she was echoing a common misperception about the “yoga body,” something that has been presented by the dominant culture, a way of understanding the effects that yoga has upon a woman’s body.

Reflections On A Changing Body

Of course, my 84-year-old granny didn’t point out something I didn’t already know. I have felt myself thicken up lately, despite no significant changes in my eating habits or physical activity.

As I’ve reached my late thirties (38 years young, yo), my metabolism has changed or something. I’m consistently gaining weight, despite my best efforts. It’s subtle, and since I don’t use scales or measuring tape, it’s difficult to measure. But I feel it.

Perhaps it is my yoga practice, which until recently (when I discovered a full body workout in seven minutes – more about that later) was my primary form of movement. My hatha yoga practice has nursed me through consistent lower back issues over the past six years, and then last summer I injured my shoulder, preventing me from doing downward dog and a few other standard poses in modern postural yoga.

I had to ease up my practice, and it became very restorative. I spent my yoga practice time lying on my back, doing weird shoulder stretches, which helped the pain (although not as much as a few rounds of rotations with free weights). I practiced yoga nidra, a deep restful yoga, to replenish my body through the bouts of pain.

So maybe I’d added the pounds because my body was forced to slow down (by itself, which is so crazy). I can’t say that I feel good about these changes in my body. I feel uncomfortable in my own skin, awkward and clunky.

Talking, But Not Always Walking, The Walk

Through my work on It’s All Yoga, Baby, I am a big supporter of the body positive movement sweeping through the North American yoga community. Yet while I’m a champion for the cause, I don’t always feel so positive about my own body.

While I’m hard on myself for only talking the talk, I also see this as proof that this movement is so necessary and important for so many women. I believe in the movement because I have often questioned my practice and wondered what I got out of it.

At times, as I’ve felt the layers of flesh thicken, I thought maybe my yoga practice was the problem. Maybe I needed more cardio burn, more vinyasa, more hot yoga. But I also know that I risk aggravating my sensitive lower back (with its multiple disc issues) when I do a really active practice full of sun salutations, forward folds and twists.

The Endless Pursuit of the “Yoga Body”

Despite the many benefits I receive from my practice, the elusive yoga body is not one. So I have incorporated a new body practice into my daily life, a seven-minute workout, which I read about in the NY Times and then immediately downloaded the app.

I know it’s kind of ridiculous, but the app gives me just the structure and feedback I need, in a way that acknowledges my body for what it is. The seven-minute workout sequence (with its old school conditioning moves like push-ups, squats and crunches) is based in high intensity interval training, and my body is responding to it like crazy. I’ve felt my strength, stamina and muscle tone increase in the month that I started doing seven minutes of working out per day.

It almost makes me wonder why I could have expected anything more from my hatha yoga practice. Bu I’ve already written about how the yoga body is a myth, and now it’s being confirmed again. Instead of developing a toned and fit “yoga butt” through my yoga practice, my body has softened and thickened. But my yoga practice has never felt deeper or more effective.

Yoga Shifts: Physical and Beyond

As I’ve developed a purely physical practice that benefits my body, my yoga practice has also shifted. I’ve started practicing more often in the evening, with a bolster, blocks and blanket, or a guided meditation.

My practice has become more thoughtful and contemplative – and nourishing. It’s where I hang out with myself, co-create a relationship with my whole self, and take time to reflect on what I’m doing.

If I was to respond to another fat-shaming comment from my granny, I would point out that while yoga doesn’t make me “skinny,” it tones other aspects of myself and helps me to “lose” unnecessary parts (slowly but surely, over time).

I may not be thin, flexible, or – as difficult as it is to admit – young, but it doesn’t matter. My body, as thick and newly-muscular as it is, is a yoga body in its own way.

About Roseanne

Roseanne Harvey is a writer, yoga teacher and community organizer in Victoria, BC, Canada. She writes about yoga and culture at It’s All Yoga, Baby, a widely read blog known for questioning, provoking thought and shining a critical light on yoga culture ~ while celebrating community, service, creativity, the independent spirit and good ol’ fun. Roseanne is also the co-editor (with Carol Horton) of 21st Century Yoga: Culture, Practice, and Politics, an anthology of essays by some of the most cutting edge voices in the North American yoga community.Connect with Roseanne on Twitter: @itsallyoga_baby

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Comments

how fascinating! I too am 38 and happily so. I am interested in the yoga body movement, and have been following it with interest. Personally I have never felt so strong or flexible as I do now, except for maybe when I was a kid., and that’s because of my yoga practice. In my mind I feel good, so it translates to the outside, helping me make wiser choices. Still, I’m not skinny – I’m a size 14 and a pearish shape, so all belly and butt

Great article. I’ve been practicing Yoga for 19 years. My practice evolves along with my different life circumstances. I started practicing Power Yoga, switched to Kripalu Yoga as I began to teach others, branched into Yin and Restorative when my body was injured or I just felt lazy. I’m now 47 years old – or young?- and as my body has become softer and thicker, have switched back to Power Yoga. I’m into my 37th consecutive day of practice and am seeing and feeling wonderful results. My body is feeling stronger and firmer already and I have no fear of growing softer or flabbier, if I continue on this path. For now. If I feel it’s the right thing for me. That’s the beauty of Yoga – it changes with you and your needs. Enjoy.

Thanks so much for this important contribution to the body-positive conversation. The problem with the idea that there is a certain “yoga body” that asana practice is supposed to help us attain is that it has nothing to do with yoga. Whatever the physical benefits of practice are—and there are many—are fringe benefits, not what yoga is about. A restorative practice like the one you describe is much more likely to produce a yogic state—the settling of the mind into silence—than is a fast-paced vinyasa class with loud music and excessive heat. These ways of practicing fit better with Western ideas of physical exercise, but they are not so aligned with yoga.

I like the idea of a seven-minute workout that is entirely devoted to exercising the body complemented by a quiet, restorative practice. That seems like balance to me. If I want rigorous physical exercise, I take a brisk walk. My asana practice is about cooling out my nervous system and calming my mind.

As Joseph Goldstein says, the changes in our bodies as we age are not a mistake. Our bodies are wired to change. I really hate how Western culture shames us for things that are beyond our control, such as our birth year and our genetic heritage. I’d love to see Western yoga help us to accept and celebrate the changes that inevitably happen as we age instead of shaming us for a completely natural process that will happen to all of us.

Love your insight. At age 68, I have adapted my yoga practice often, even as I got old and fat! Loving my body is a mindfulness practice that gives me an opportunity to increase my compassion for myself and others.

Thanks for your article – a great share! Can concur with your experience… started daily yoga when I was 17 years old and am now 52. Age and hormones changes things, without a doubt!

I do not believe we have to accept increasing fat layers as inevitable, however, no matter what our age!! Yes, increasing the workouts to strengthen muscle is great!

My experience has been that nutrition plays a huge role too. Many of us yogis end up on vegetarian diets, which usually means softer muscles. I am so grateful to have discovered some all natural, vegetarian products which have really helped to build my lean muscle, strengthen it, increase my stamina and reduce fat layers, all at once! Makes it easy to have good muscle definition and body shape… and they taste yummy too!! (Plus they originate from NZ!)

I looked at the 7 minute routine mentioned in the article and had to laugh. I already do almost all those exercises as part of my yoga practice. In fact I learned some of them in various yoga classes, especially wall sits (1 to 2 min, often with block between knees to engage inner thighs.)

I also incorporate into my daily practice various physical therapy exercises I learned after shoulder injury. Some use free weights.

I learned a new (to me) pilates abdominal exercise in Iyengar class.

I guess I don’t go to yoga classes that are narrowly focused or rigidly doctrinaire — I live in Brooklyn, where you can find almost anything.. Even the occasional set of standard push ups.

To me it’s all yoga, if done with yoga integration and attention.

I’ll be 70 in a couple of months. The idea of the “yoga body” (to me) is simply silly. But I’ve done handstands on three continents.